UBCO’s Willa Bonsall Named Week 3 Player of the Week

UBC Okanagan’s Willa Bonsall is the WCSA Player of the Week for Week 3, after putting together the most complete weekend of any hitter in the league.

Bonsall doesn’t hit for power, and she doesn’t need to. Hitting at the top of UBC Okanagan’s order, her job is to get on base and create chaos in front of the bats behind her. And this weekend, she did exactly that, game after game, en route to a 4-1 weekend for the Heat.

By the Numbers

The numbers back it up. Across 20 plate appearances, Bonsall hit .556 with a .600 on-base percentage, a .722 slugging percentage, and a 1.322 OPS, offering the best statistical weekend of anyone in the league with a comparable number of trips to the plate. She collected 10 hits (eight singles, a double, and a triple), walked twice, and drove in three runs. With runners in scoring position, she hit .600. Her 11 quality at-bats reflect a hitter who was locked in from pitch to pitch.

• .556 AVG
• .600 OBP
• .722 SLG
• 1.322 OPS
• 20 PA / 11 QAB
• 10 H (8 1B, 1 2B, 1 3B)
• 3 RBI
• 2 BB
• 10 SB
• .600 AVG with RISP

But the stat that stands out above all the others is 10 (yes, 10) stolen bases on the weekend. Bonsall isn’t just getting on base; she’s putting herself in scoring position without needing any help. A leadoff single quickly turns to Bonsall standing on second and one pitch later, she’s standing on third. And once she’s at third, UBC Okanagan is one swing or one wild pitch away from another run. That’s a dangerous player to have at the top of your lineup, and an exhausting one to defend against.

And this weekend wasn’t an outlier. On the season, Bonsall sits fifth in the league in batting average, but that ranking undersells her. Of the four names ahead of her, three are tied at the top, and only one of those four has a comparable number of plate appearances. Once you account for playing time, Bonsall is arguably hitting second-best in the entire league at .476, trailing only her own teammate, Katie Nelson, who leads the way at .483. This isn’t a one-week hot streak…it’s a breakout rookie season.

For someone who is just casually following UBCO, you might not notice just how much Bonsall is contributing. There’s no flash. No big home runs or massive RBI numbers. She’s not chasing highlight-reel moments. She is just relentlessly, quietly good at the fundamentals: get on and score. It’s the kind of game that wins championships more often than it wins attention. And she’s doing all of it as a first-year. If this is what Bonsall looks like in year one, the rest of the WCSA has a problem on its hands for a long time to come.

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Other Performances of Note

Bonsall wasn’t the only one contributing to her team this weekend. Check out some of our other performances of note from around the league here.

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#16 · Outfield Willa Bonsall UBC Okanagan View profile →